Page 14 - Priorities #71

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The Rosario Peréz home was greatly damaged after the hurricane.
The Colegio de San Antonio Abad school.
Abad, Cristy’s school, with another agenda as well: to recruit a student to the Priory. Head of School Tim Molak had already approved a full scholarship as a “gesture of goodwill,” says Cohen, for a fellow Benedictine school that had suffered during Hurricane Maria.
Cohen worked closely with the school’s English teacher to identify students who spoke fluent English and could thrive in Priory’s academic setting. Yet when Cristy’s English teacher announced this to her class, Cristy was suspicious. “I thought there must be some requirement that I can’t meet,” she shared. For years she had been researching American boarding schools, hoping to make her dream come true, and Mr. Cohen showing up seemed too easy to be real.
Within days, Cohen set up times to interview a handful of the Colegio’s students. Cristy remembers that after classes she saw him standing by the school entrance and decided to talk to him right then. He liked her initiative; even more, he liked her “big time hutz-pah.” When Cohen mispronounced Cristy’s name, she corrected him right away. “She’s fearless,” he commented. “This is exactly what we need for this program.” Coming to an American school and leaving behind friends and family for her senior year would be very challenging, but Cohen said it was very clear that Cristy was not afraid to leave Puerto Rico. While some of Cristy’s classmates didn’t want to change schools for their senior year, that didn’t stop her. Dean of Residential Life Adam Siler says, “She has such a capacity to navigate a new place seamlessly.”
Both of Cristy’s parents are teachers, and though they had some misgivings, they knew that this was the best move for their aspiring daughter. Cristy tirelessly takes advantage of her new opportunities. Besides swimming twice a day and competing, she has a full load of classes, from Physics to US History, to AP Spanish. “She could have taken her senior year easy,” says Siler, “but that’s not who she is.”
“At first it was overwhelming,” remembers Cristy. All the resources were new, such as technology, emailing teachers, watching videos for classes. “I
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